Customer Reviews

The Method (El Metodo)

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4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
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Director Marcelo Piñeyro presents us with an interesting concept in this Spanish-Argentinean production. Seven candidates are summoned for a final round of interviews in a company that is looking to fill an executive position. These people soon find out that the method used by the prospective employer is not even close to being conventional. They are informed through release forms that they are going to participate in the Gronholm method of selection, but nobody is sure what this entails.

The seven candidates are taken to a room with a monitor and keyboard for each, and then the games begin! The process resembles many of the reality shows you can see on TV, with one candidate being eliminated in each round. In Trump's "The Apprentice" the person leaving gets the phrase "You're fired", in this case, the monitor shuts down and an electronic voice says "It's over". But even though the concept is not completely original, the personalities of the candidates, and the design of the process give this film enough elements to make it worthwhile.

The candidates are the key to this film. Julio is a lawyer and economist who seems to be overqualified for the position, but carries some baggage from the past. Ricardo is the first one to get annoyed by all the nonsense, like having to fill forms that they have filled before in the process. If you have ever had to fill forms in a doctor's office, that ask for duplicate information, you will certainly sympathize with him. Nieves is an attractive young woman who seems to know exactly what she wants, and she has met Carlos, who is another candidate, in her previous life. Carlos is a young economist who has as much drive as all the other candidates put together and who will stop at nothing to achieve his goal. Ana is an older woman, who has had a successful career in the music industry and is looking for the next challenge, in a world that is dominated by the young. Fernando is a typical macho that speaks his mind and does not like conniving individuals. Last but not least, we have Enrique, who is the one that is most interested in the actual method of selection and loves to be involved in this process. The only other character on the film is Montse, a secretary that is as creepy as they come, and alternates baffling smiles with serious looks that can pulverize rock.

The movie centers around the way in which the interview process affects the attitudes of the candidates. We can definitely see how from an initial desire to be accepted by the others, the individuals start shifting their actions and are dominated by greed. There are many twists along the way as to the rules by which the contestants are playing, which helps keep things entertaining. There are also many scenes in which the tension can be sliced with a knife. But this movie succeeds mainly due to the outstanding performances of a first rate cast. It is great to see Pablo Echarri once again in a leading role and taking that on with gusto. Also, Ernesto Alterio, the son of one of the best Argentinean actors of all time, Hector Alterio, shows us that some abilities can be acquired through genes. He portrays the nervous Enrique so convincingly, that at times you feel like grabbing him by the shoulders and shaking him, to see if he will calm down.

On another note, I have seen many movies in Spanish that are ruined by the translation in the English subtitles. I am happy to say that this is not the case for this film, since we get an accurate translation that prevents those that do not speak Spanish from missing anything. Basically, this film is the complete package, and I wholeheartedly recommend it.

This film is a darkly humorous allegory about globalization and the spread of competitive American business culture and individualism. In a Madrid office tower, a group of applicants for a high-end corporate job are brought into a board room and told that they collectively will take part in weeding each other out so that only one person is left for the job. They are told that their meeting is part of a scientifically proven psychological selection process, and that someone in the room is a plant who is observing them engage in a series of games and role plays. Ostensibly civil, professional, and "business like," the applicants set about destroying each other's credibility while enhancing their respective individual positions.

I saw this last night at an AFI screening and am still mulling over it. There are great performances in what is essentially a filmed play. The camera work is fantastic, as it picks up glances and stares between the characters that forcefully communicate messages of "I can't believe you just did that do me," disappointment, contempt, love, etc. You laugh out-loud at times, but ultimately you are devastated by the recognizeable, frightening visciousness.

Although this film is an allegory, it would also be a great center-piece for a business school course on organizational behavior.

A smart, intriguing film that has you constantly asking, what will happen next? This is by far the best Spanish movie I have ever watched. The characters develop quickly before your eyes as they dialogue before the next and final phase of their interview process.
The first surprise of the movie, is that the applicants are placed in the role of interviewer, they will be eliminating their competition and in the process selecting the companies new employee but they must do this in a manner that makes they look like the best choice. Then they learn that one of them is actually an employee of the company sent to observe them.
They must eliminate this person, but who is it?
As a Manager in a Fortune 100 company, I was shocked to learn that I had somehow missed the usage of the Gronholm Method, as I watched, I saw it was a twist to the stress interview. A format used to put the candidate in the most stressful circumstances possible and see if they can withstand the pressure. We later find out that the Human Resources people made up the term to intimidate the candidates.
The psychological potholes these people must navigate are varied yet slowly reveal their true motivations and character flaws to those with whom they are competing.
In the midst of watching each candidate create ways to make another competitor look bad, there are funny twists amidst the fracas.
It definitely had the "Wow Factor", holding true to the basic character of corporate backstabbing, this movie shows that one often sells their soul for a nice title and a healthy salary. At the end of the day, we wonder is it worth the cost?
This movie is a must see for those who like psychological dramas and a well-developed plot line.
A good movie to show teenagers, to prepare them on what they should expect in the "working" world.

"The Gronholm method" (= "El método Gronholm") is probably one of the best movies in Spanish I have seen this year. This film is a loose adaptation of a successful Spanish play, and is directed by a talented Argentinian, Marcelo Piñeyro. What is more, it has an excellent cast that makes you believe that what you are seeing is actually happening, and in a sense, that can be true.

What do I mean by that? Well, the story is about seven candidates that want the same job in a very important multinational, and the things they are ready to do in order to get that job. To start with, they are more than ready to participate in "The Gronholm method", a method the Human Resources Department of the multinational uses in order to choose the best candidate, and that involves turning the candidates against each other. Doesn't something like that happen sometimes in real life? It hasn't happened to me, but...

I must say that at times it is difficult to watch how far some people are ready to go in order to achieve the first place in the rat race. All the same, it is impossible to deny that this is a provocative film that gives food for thought, with a good plot and some unexpected twists that you won't see coming. On the whole, the kind of film you are not likely to regret watching.

Belen Alcat

I must be getting old as I failed to see the dark humor and brilliance of this movie. Is there irony? Yes, but not that it was funny. Seven people vie for a job inside a room, while the whole corporate world is falling apart outside the room. Yawn. The movie did have the "feel" of 12 Angry Men, but that ended when the testing method suddenly changed in midstream. The head games that followed I thought were stupid and ill conceived. What was with the bad food? Chumscrubber is a dark comedy. This is not a dark comedy.

A psychological drama of being rejected by other work-seekers and betrayed by the loved preferring money and social status rather than family values of a modern world.

Actually, it is hard to believe somewhere in the world such a selective process exists at all as protectionism and xenophobia ruled even less technologically advanced enterprises than one depicted.

This movie sat on my shelf for a half a year. While it seemd to have a list of great actors, I couldn't quite get in the mood for a movie that promised to be a lot of talk and not much action. When I finally did see it, it turned out to be quite riveting. I suppose it sort of fits the popularity of reality shows. Many reviews have covered the positive aspects of the movie, so I won't repeat most of them here. I agree that the acting is great and the social/business commentary is interesting. In the typical style of many Spanish movies, the movie itself is more the point than the ending. The ending of this movie is left somewhat inconclusive. The viewer is left somewhat unsure of exactly what the romantic status as well as the job status of the final two applicants is. This may be a potential drawback for some American viewers who like neat and happy Holloywood endings. Additionally, while I enojoyed the suspense of not knowing who would turn out to be who or what would happen, I cannot imagine watching this movie more than once or twice.

Based on the play, "El Metodo Gronholm," "The Method" is an intelligent film that argues for the condemnation of morally-bankrupt multinational corporations. It's not so much the belief that corporations are evil and greedy that's in the spotlight here. Rather, it's more the blind acceptance of people who, although blessed with free will, would allow themselves to be manipulated in egregious ways for what is essentially just a job. The phenomenon is no longer phenomenal. The medium of TV alone offers a surfeit of fame-seekers who would do anything, anything at all, to kick someone off an island, kick someone off a boardroom, kick someone off the planet (okay, maybe the planet thing was a bit much, but you get the point). It's all about the survival of the fittest.

Here at Madrid's Dekia Corp. seven candidates for an executive position are ensconced in a locked room. The idea for these clueless seven is to participate in a series of tests, known as The Gronholm Method, designed specifically as an assessment and elimination process. A sort of inhuman tool for Human Resources, the unorthodox method seems something a bored, misanthropic psychologist has thought up. Not your tame Myers-Briggs psychological typing, it purports to weed out the weakest by incrementally doling out progressively intense scenarios that will bring out either the best or the worst in each. Not surprisingly, its very nature causes extreme paranoia and subversive reactions toward one another. The whole setup is sinister and no one can be trusted; one could even be a mole for the company, planted to observe the candidates as they destroy one another, decency and honesty be damned. The trickery and manipulation don't culminate in blows, but the end result is even more painful. Here, the body isn't harmed but the soul is up for grabs. Ultimately, it's a shallow victory for one that begs the question: Who has conned whom?

It is said that ambition is like love; it is impatient of delays and rivals. No delays here--everyone's ambitions make quick work of their rivals. With hardly any action and shot mostly in one room, "The Method" succeeds unexpectedly through the disciplined direction of Marcelo Pineyro, best known in the US for his Argentine film, "The Official Story." Pineyro keeps the plot moving, ratcheting up the suspense with sharp dialogues that are small mind games of their own. There's a sense of foreboding at all times, a sort of gamesmanship afoot and the actors are uniformly excellent in depicting the hunger that seethes beneath the power suits.

More importantly, the story dares one to think. Outside on the streets, throngs of people are demonstrating against the harms done by the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. On Dekia's 5th floor, our characters are playing parlor games in pursuit of a job. Which of these is a life of substance? Should you find yourself in a job interview that approximates anything close to The Method, here's a friendly piece of advice: run fast, run far.

(Language: Spanish with English subtitles)

A group of job applicants gather in a board room for a group job interview that only one of them will pass. Soon they realize that an interviewer is not going to appear and that it is up to them to "select" the successful applicant (and eliminate each other one by one in the process) through a series of unusual tasks that are sent to them via computer. Rather than testing for teamwork and participation, as most group job interviews do, these tasks seem designed to set the applicants against each other and identify the most aggressive and devious of the group, with interesting results.

The set up is very similar to that of "Twelve Angry Men". Both films started life as plays and as a result, both centre on a group of people sitting in a room talking. If you think about "The Method" for more than a few seconds, you can clearly see its stage origins, yet as with "Twelve Angry Men", it doesn't really matter all that much. The discussions between the characters and the dynamics of the group are of so much interest that it doesn't matter that there is virtually no movement. This film also reminded me of "And Then There Were None", in that there is a group of people (seven in this case) who are progressively eliminated and it is fun to guess who will be the next to go and who will remain at the end. Although there are no deaths in this film, I found it just as suspenseful as many horror movies that I have seen, if not more so.

This is an excellent film and one that definitely stays with you. I saw this film two nights ago and find myself still wondering how I would perform in the tasks that these characters are set. In a way this film frightens, me as it is such an accurate depiction of how the world really works. I highly recommend this film as preparation for anyone who has to do a job interview in the near future.

"The Method" begins with a group of executive job candidates arriving at an office to interview for an open executive position. They are informed that the interview process will use an obscure interview method designed to have the best candidate for the job rise to the occasion. The candidates play a series of games and discuss hypothetical situations until they are eventually whittled down to the final candidate.

Director Marcelo Pineyro did an excellent job converting "The Method" from play to film. The fact that the film takes place mostly in one room makes it an intrinsically difficult shoot to begin with. Instead of it being a problem due to a lack of action the confining setting allows the audience to pay attention to the cast and get to know them.

A movie of this kind has to have a strong cast to be effective, and the makers of the movie were very successful in locating one. Eduardo Noriega, Eduard Fernandez, and Pablo Echarri all turn in strong performances on a very confining set.

In addition to the job candidates themselves the film is also critical of corporations and how they can encourage this culture of cold blooded behavior. The complete lack of concern by the job candidates and executives as they look down on rioting protestors at the front of the building also speaks volumes.

"The Method" is ultimately a study of how cold and calculating people can be to achieve their goals. It is a quality film with a strong cast that deserves to be seen.